Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this May 23rd, 2024.
Have your host James J with you and right now joining us in the studio,
one of our great friends, our favorite people to talk to.
Janelle, we are Horticultural Educator UW-Madison Division of Extension,
Marathon County and Wood County.
Janelle, always good to have you with us, thanks for being here.
It's always a pleasure to be here.
We have always a fun topic to get into, an interesting topic to get into, I should say,
and something that we can really dive into and learn a little bit more about.
And you picked a very topical one, a very important one right now,
especially this time of year.
Yeah, yeah, so I've had an uptick in phone calls recently.
It really started back in, I would say, mid to late December,
and it's just been building and building and building.
And these phone calls, what it is, is it's homeowners who have ash trees,
but they didn't know that they had an ash tree.
And so I think that's what's going on at least.
And so what's happening is folks are calling me up and they're complaining that
there's a woodpecker that's killing their tree.
And what can we do about that?
Typically, what's happened any time we've seen woodpecker damage to the point where
it appears that they're killing the tree.
Typically, what has happened is there's been some sort of stress.
It could be in the case of ash trees.
It could be that the emerald ash borer has moved in.
Oftentimes, otherwise, though, with other types of trees,
it could be that the tree was just stressed from some other reason.
Maybe the drought last year.
Or maybe it was stressed from an ice storm, something like that.
And then because it's stressed, the insects move in.
They are, it's now susceptible.
And so the insects will come in and they'll move in.
And then once the insects overtake it, then the woodpeckers are there.
And the woodpeckers are the thing that we really notice.
But they're not what caused the initial decline.
I kind of think of it like, let's say that you're driving down the road, right?
And a skunk gets into the road.
The skunk is hit by a vehicle, okay?
And this happened about five minutes before you show up in your vehicle, right?
And so you're driving up and you see a vulture working on the carcass of the skunk.
You know, your initial thoughts, if you're not familiar with how vultures work,
your initial thought would be, oh my gosh, that vulture is killing that skunk.
When really that vulture had nothing to do with the initial death of the skunk,
the vulture is just taking advantage of an opportunity, right?
That's what happened.
That's what's happening with these woodpeckers.
The woodpeckers are taking advantage of an opportunity.
Man, there's a whole Thanksgiving feast happening inside that tree.
And they have a big appetite in woodpeckers.
Yes. Actually, just without a rabbit hole a couple of weeks ago on woodpeckers
and learned a ton about them, I think one of the more fascinating things
in the animal kingdom is the woodpeckers tongue.
It is incredible.
All started with, well, how do they not get a concussion
by pecking that wood and everything?
Their tongue is so long that it wraps around their brain and works as a kind of buffer.
So as they're pecking, their tongue protects their brain.
I know it's amazing.
It's amazing.
It's amazing.
They're incredible animals.
It's just wild.
And you got to look more into that, everybody, because it's a fascinating thing.
It's an interest.
I've really given you Cliff Notes version on this, but they're a really interesting animal.
But I do have a point here.
I think that if you learn a little bit more about these animals,
some of this stuff becomes, oh, you find out some of these things
in the process of learning them.
That, oh, well, woodpeckers are just really good resource gathers.
They're going to take the moment and find the trees with the most insects.
And oftentimes it is these ash borers.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Unfortunately, if you're not aware, if you haven't already identified
that you've got an ash tree in your yard, a lot of times the first time that you'll realize,
oh, my goodness, there's a problem.
Especially if you're not really looking up and paying attention to the canopy,
you know, over time.
A lot of times the first times you'll realize, oh, I do have an ash tree.
It will be, they call it flacking.
And that's what they call the damage.
And it's really just, it's a very characteristic damage of the bark coming off of the tree.
And it's because of the woodpeckers.
So, Janelle, when should we consider treating the ash tree for EAB?
You know, back, say, 10, 15 years ago, the recommendations would have been, you know,
being aware of where Emerald ash borer is in the state.
And then depending on your, if you're in a quarantined area or it hasn't been identified,
you may have more time before you need to treat it.
That's not the case anymore.
Emerald ash borer is then identified almost every county in the state.
It's definitely here in wood county.
It's been here in wood county for quite some time.
So, now it's a matter of identifying, do I have ash in my landscape?
Do I have ash in my yard?
And if I do, I'm going to need to think about, I'm going to need to think about whether or not
this ash tree is a high-value ash or a low-value ash.
So, firstly, we want to think about is, you know, trees can add an incredible amount to our
property values, right? So, we want to kind of figure out, is this going to be an ash tree that's
adding a lot of value to my property? Or, you know, is this a low-value tree?
Some things to consider, whether or not it's a high-value tree, are going to be things like,
is it offering energy, energy reduction to my house? And that's going to be if it's
cited, you know, on the south or west or even the eastern side of the home, right?
If it's cited in one of those spots, it might be providing a lot of energy efficiency for you.
Trees will also help reduce runoff and erosion. And like I mentioned before, just in general,
you know, they're just add a lot of beauty, and that beauty is economically translated into
increased property value. So, we don't think about very often, that's an interesting note.
Yeah, yeah. So, there are some online calculators that you can do to find out whether or not,
just how valuable your tree is. Oh, another thing that we want to think about too is where that
tree is cited. So, you know, if it's underneath a power line or someplace like that, it's not going
to be a high-value tree. The tree's health, the current health. So, taking a look at the canopy,
also the shape of the tree, you know, is it, you know, just the tree's health in general is going
to tell you whether or not it's worth the investment. Because here's the thing, if you decide to
treat your ash tree, you're going to need to treat it for the life of the tree. It's not
something that you can one and done. I took a phone call at some point in the past few months,
it was from a gentleman, and you know, they had learned about Emerald Ashbor, and they had their tree
treated. I want to say he said maybe 2016, 2016, 2018, something like that. They had their tree
treated, and then they didn't follow up on it. It's not a one and done, unfortunately, and it's not
cheap. It's not cheap to protect the trees either. So, these are things, these are reasons,
you know, some of the reasons why I'm suggesting, hey, let's really, you know, if you're thinking about
doing, protecting your tree and doing insecticide treatments, you know, really want to, I don't want
people, don't get me wrong, I love trees. I'm not out to see trees die, but really, we want to find
out whether or not this is even going to be, you know, worthwhile. So, there are some online
calculators that you can do. There's a really cool one. If you go to iTreeTools.org,
and I'll give you, there's a handful of different tree calculators. One of them is an
individual tree calculator, and it'll estimate how much value this tree is adding to your landscape.
I got to be honest, I'm doing this even if, just to see, I just want to test it, I just want to see
what this is like. That's a really cool idea. That's a great website, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it'll help you.
There's a couple of other ones too. There's ones that'll help you decide, you know, if you're like
thinking about adding trees to your landscape, you know, which ones are going to increase the
value of your landscape, or where would the placement, you know, be of the best value for you too.
And it takes into consideration all the things I was talking about, you know, like the environmental
increase, the economic increase, and also any energy reduction that you may make it out of that.
We're speaking with Janelle Weir Horticultural Educator with UW Medicine Division of Extension,
and Janelle, you mentioned it early on in the conversation that there are some people that don't
know that they have this tree, or then that it is affected. So we get to that process, we get to
that stage in this where we identify the tree, we have it. How do I know if my ash tree has EAB?
So a couple of things like symptoms that you can look for. Over like an easy one, especially
now that the trees have leaped out, take a look at that canopy, and see, you know, is that
canopy starting to thin at all? That's probably going to be one of the first things that you'll notice.
Next, you may see some sprouts along the trunk. You might notice that the bark is splitting,
and then definitely, you know, woodpecker damage, that flacking from the bark that I was describing
before. Those are all indicators that something is going on. Now, it might not be Emerald Ashbor.
Those could all just be signs of stress from, you know, some other insect inside of your tree.
So the first thing I would want to do is, you know, identify your tree, make sure that it is an ash.
If you're starting to notice, you know, say the canopy is looking a little thin, and you want to
take a closer look and see, is this Emerald Ashbor? Well, some symptoms that are going to be,
or signs that are going to be very specific to Emerald Ashbor are going to be de-shaped exit
diplomas. That's going to be in the bark of the tree. If you've got any bark that has
sloughed off, you may notice S-shaped larval tunnels, or even better, or worse, I guess, depending
on your point of view. You might actually find the cream-colored larvae underneath that bark. If you
see any of those things, that's a real strong indicator that we are looking specifically at Emerald
Ashbor. You mentioned before about the consistency needed to help these trees,
and to keep these trees flourishing and alive and everything. How long, this is a process that's
going to be, you're going to have to keep up on it sounds like. Yeah, this is going to be a lifelong
treatment. That's why, really, you know, I was stressing at the beginning that we really want to
figure out whether, you know, is this a tree that's worth putting this investment in? And, you know,
I also want to kind of mention, too, we're talking about an economic investment. There are his
limits to the amount of pesticides of this insecticide that you can put per acre. So, if you have a
lot of ash trees on your property, that may also be part of that calculation of whether or not you
want to, whether or not you want to treat it. If you bring in a certified arborist, oftentimes,
they are applying a pesticide that covers every two years. I've even heard some of them are for
every three years. Talk to your certified arborist. Those can be, they're more expensive. But,
oftentimes, number one, it is your only option. If the tree is a certain size, that's the, you
know, those are the only things that you can do. Otherwise, otherwise, there are some home
treatments that you could do. If you're thinking about treating, you know, trying to figure out whether
or not you should treat your tree yourself or if you need to bring in an arborist, number one,
the size of the tree is probably going to be the biggest limiting factor. So, if the tree is
47 inches around the trunk at chest height, that's going to be a 15-inch diameter. If your tree
is that size or bigger, you're going to have to call a certified arborist. Oftentimes, the product label
is only going to be labeled for that. I want to remind everyone, number one, anytime that you're
using pesticides, make sure that you check the label. Oftentimes, homeowners don't realize that
that label is a legal contract between the manufacturer and the person that is using it. So, please,
make sure that you're reading that pesticide label. So, it not only won't be labeled for that
tree, but if the tree is bigger than that, it's not going to be effective. And so, a lot of times,
homeowners will say, oh, well, this is good at 47 inches at breast height, circumference at breast
height, or 15 inches diameter at breast height. Well, I just, in mine is, you know, 20 inches. Oh,
I just need to add, you know, use more of the pesticide. It's not going to be effective for a
bigger tree like that. And you're just dumping more pesticides. It's not going to be a good
solution. No, no, not the best thing for not only the tree, but your yard, it seems like
in really the planet, you know, to extend it a little bit farther. Well, when I start to think
about his groundwater, that's the reason why they put the limits on how much that you can apply
for acre. So, in that case, you know, if we are dealing with a bigger tree, reach out to a certified
arborist. You can find a certified arborist. There's the nice ISA, ISA is the agency that
certifies arborist. They keep a list of certified arborists, and so you can actually go in and
punch in your zip code, and they'll give you a list of certified arborists. To find that list,
you're going to go to treesrgood.org slash find in arborist slash find in arborist.
If any of these links, if I say them too quickly, you can always reach out to the extension office,
the wood county extension office, and I can get you, I can get you connected with those resources.
That's a great name for website, by the way. I love the name of the website. It's such a good name.
When we get to this process of the tree and it's infected, what about having to remove the ash
tree if it's infested with EAB? Do we have to? Don't we have to? Yeah, so a good way to start, you know,
at least figuring this out is going to be, you know, take a look at that tree canopy. The tree
canopy is thinned more than 50%, but tree, I hate saying these words. That tree is probably
terminal. It's probably going to need to come down. It may not need to come down this year,
you know, and here's the thing. I get it. It can be incredibly expensive and cost prohibitive
to take a tree down. So, it may not, if it's, you know, at, you know, just over 50%, it may not
need to come down this year, but just have it part of your planning process in the coming years.
It's likely going to need to come down. If it's less than 50%, and you have deemed this as a, you
know what, if we can save this tree, it's going to be something that's high value, then you may not
need to take it down. We'll need to do treatments for the course of the tree's life, though.
Now, if we're going to dispose of the wood from an infested ash tree, how do we go about that?
If you used a service, a tree service, chances are that tree service is going, as part of
their package, is going to have removal of the, of the wood for you. If you take care of this
yourself, it is imperative. And I doubt there's anybody in the listening audience that this is
going to be new information, but I feel obligated to say it anyways. If you take your own tree down,
use it locally. Don't move that wood anywhere. Don't take it with you to the cabin up north and use
it as firewood. You can only use it locally as firewood. It's a good, I know that a lot of us like to
make use of these things, so to be able to use it for firewood is great, but you're only kind of
prolonging the process in many ways if you bring it to another zip code or something like that,
keep it in, in house, if you will. Yeah, yeah, you know, I mean, this is how, this, this is how invasive
species move, you know, emerald ash borers, not native to this continent. And typically insects need,
well, any invasive species, you know, to move the initial great distances, they need to help with
humans. So we just want to make sure that we are learning from previous mistakes. Right.
Do you know one of the things that we love having you here for, certainly having these topics,
we really focus on in kind of our headline, but there's a lot of things going on with you all at
extension. Yeah, so, you know, we've been talking about invasive species, emerald ash borer,
tonight I'm actually going to be doing a program up in Mozini. I know it's a little bit of a hike,
but if anybody's interest in invasive species has been peaked, I will be doing a presentation
on spotted lantern fly. A new invasive species has not made it to Wisconsin yet, but it was
identified in Cook County in September of last year. Cook County is, I'm sure, close to home for
you right down there in Chicago. So I would not be surprised at all if we start to see our first
sightings in Wisconsin this year, this growing season. Like a lot of us people from Illinois just
traveling up here to Wisconsin. Yeah, you're going to see it. You're going to see that. Good
help. That's all I'm going to. I can make that joke. I can make that. There's other things you
guys are doing as well. You know, in all fairness, I'm a FIB transplant too. Thank you. Thank you,
Jennifer. That's great. So we've got some virtual programs coming up. One that I'm really excited
about. My colleague Julie Hill down in. Oh gosh. Rock County is going to walk well worth in
Jefferson counties. She's going to be doing this virtual program. It's called balancing act
in the home garden, protecting pollinators while managing pests. That's going to be Wednesday,
June 19th, noon to 1 p.m. Again, that's a virtual program. She's going to be talking about
protecting pollinators while having a pest management plan in place and how to really balance out,
you know, both taking care of the bad bugs while supporting the good ones.
Looking forward to hearing more about that too. That looks like a great presentation and there are
so many things that UW has to offer and more great information for you. Janelle, if people have
fault questions, want to know more about some of the what we've talked about today, how can they
read you? Always happy to hear from folks. You can give me a call down at the extension office.
That phone number is 715-421-840 or you can shoot me an email. I work out of both the Wood and
Marathon County offices. So it's oftentimes it's easier to catch me through email. My email address
is J-A-N-E-L-L-D-W-E-H-R-A-T-W-I-S-C-D-E-D-U.
And of course, if you ever need any of these web addresses or email addresses or anything,
please reach out to our staff. We'll make sure to get them to you and encourage you to do that and find
out more at extension.wisk.edu. It's another great resource for you, extension.wisk.edu. We always
love talking with you, Janelle. Looking forward to talking again real soon. Thanks for the time.
Thank you. We'll be back with more Midday Magazine for you tomorrow right here at 97-5 FM,
13-20 AM-WF-H-R. We are locally grown radio.
